Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: NHLPA

In his first post-lockout interview, retired NHLer and NHL Players’ Association executive committee member Trent Klatt told The Hockey News how betrayed he felt after discovering that former NHLPA executive director Ted Saskin and another union official hacked into players’ personal email accounts.

“It was like I got kicked in the balls, pardon my French,” Klatt told THN for a story that will appear in the Dec. 1st issue of the magazine. “To think they’re hacking into my emails in my house, in Northern Minnesota, and reading everything…there are just lines you don’t cross, and I never imagined that would take place. I still can’t believe it.

“At the time Ted first took over, that wasn’t something I thought was possible. But he just brought it on himself.”

...should there be a “term limit” on the Commissioner’s office? And if so, then should there also be a limit on the time any one individual heads the NHL Players Association? Would the game be better served with this idea in place? Would more get done? Would views be broader? Would it be worse? Lots of queries.

Take the current Commish for instance. If you were to break Gary Bettman’s tenure into 4-year segments he would be approaching the end of his fourth term.

This probably isn’t what’s meant by giving the finger, but the Maple Leafs are already attempting to deal Jeff Finger, the defenseman whom they signed to a four-year, $14M free agent contract this July, we’re told.

Finally, for those people who say, “Lou would never do that,” when the possibility is raised of Lamoriello trading for Nikolai Khabibulin in the wake of the potentially shattering elbow injury to Martin Brodeur, they should never forget this:

...the former Boston prosecutor has done a commendable job of emphasizing process above all else, a commitment to doing things the right way that the NHLPA badly needed.

For example, a number of general managers have been muttering about their unhappiness with the NHLPA for not unilaterally extending the current collective bargaining agreement last spring, on the grounds that it would have made signing veteran players easier because teams could then could defer bonus payments into next year’s cap, as they’ve done throughout the current agreement.

Most people think that’s what will eventually happen; that the players have made out far better than expected in the current agreement and have no appetite to go to war with the owners only four years after losing an entire year out of their careers to a work stoppage.

But rather than just assuming that’s how his membership felt, Kelly wanted to know the answer for sure.

“We have a building in Kansas City that’s ... NHL ready. My view is the NHL would probably lean towards Kansas City first if it has to relocate a team, but I’m not a big fan of that idea. Kansas City has had a NHL team in the past—it didn’t work out real well. I would be much more in favour of a Canadian franchise if you were gonna move one.

“That said, we’d like to see all the franchises succeed. We are a bit concerned when we see drop-off in places like Atlanta, in places like Florida, Phoenix ... I’ve been to those buildings—the people who follow the sport are passionate about it. We just need more of them.”

-Paul Kelly, Executive Director of the NHLPA. More from Kelly by Randy Sportak of he Calgary Sun.

It’s time to stop calling Paul Kelly the “new” leader of the players’ union. On Friday, he celebrated his one-year anniversary on the job as executive director of the NHL Players’ Association.

“Today is the big day,” Kelly told ESPN.com in an interview Friday.

Much has changed in his 365 days in office. The players’ union was a divided group when Kelly came on board, still reeling from its controversial decision to accept the sport’s first salary cap in order to end the NHL lockout three years ago.

The NHL is entering the fourth season under the new collective bargaining agreement. The first three years have witnessed significant revenue growth that has led to an increase in club payrolls.

Salaries, from the players’ perspective, have risen nicely.

There is a notion the new agreement has helped the players more than the clubs. But before you make an assessment, you need to read the entire pact. There is likely to be a major shift back toward the clubs during the 2008-09 season.